Text Size

Hagel: I'm U.S., not Israeli Sen.

The former Nebraska Republican senator — who is expected to get President Barack Obama’s nod to become his next secretary of defense — is anything but a favorite among many of his former GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill. His onetime fellow Republican senators are quick to point out his role as a chief Bush antagonist over Iraq, his opposition to sanctions in places like Iran and comments he’s made about Hamas, Hezbollah and North Korea.

Some privately note he rubbed them the wrong way; one GOP senator called him “prickly.” Another was irked by the moderate Republican’s penchant for taking on his party, including this past election cycle, when he backed Democrat Bob Kerrey’s Senate candidacy in Nebraska over Deb Fischer, the Republican who later went on to win the race. Off of Capitol Hill on Tuesday, critics — including the Anti-Defamation League — slammed his record on Israel, including comments he made years back when he called pro-Israel forces in Washington the “Jewish lobby.”

Hagel’s expected nomination was supposed to give the Obama Cabinet a boost of bipartisanship — adding a Republican and decorated war veteran with two Purple Hearts serving in Vietnam. And there was hope that the White House could avoid a nasty confirmation battle because senators are typically quick to bless one of their own.

But after battling the Bush administration’s controversial foreign policy decisions — and straying even further from a party that has grown increasingly conservative in recent years — Republicans are signaling that Hagel’s ride to confirmation could be anything but smooth, even if he does end up with enough votes to head to the Cabinet.

“We had some disagreements; obviously those will be examined, for example, when he said the [Iraq] surge could not succeed, and obviously he was wrong there,” Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO. “We obviously want to review his whole record and go through the regular process.”

McCain scoffed at claims that Hagel would be a Republican voice in a mostly Democratic Cabinet, saying to “allege that Hagel is somehow a Republican — that is a hard one to swallow.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a conservative who is expected to become the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee next Congress, said he is “not real happy” with some of Hagel’s past statements on Israel. He recalled that Hagel had often been “curt” in their interactions.

“A lot of times, these hearings are sort of for show, but I think this one will really matter,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the committee. “I think he’s just going to have to explain some of these comments that disturb people.”

I listened to him the other night on CSPAN (I like to have unedited information about the people leading us) and I liked him. Sensible and thoughtful, quite unlike Mr. "Shoot from the hip or the lip" McCain. Every once in awhile, we need to consider what this country would be like under the hand of McCain and Palin. Can you imagine? Absolutely nothing for the unemployed -- so we'd be seeing soup kitchens and tent cities in every state, new wars to fight in Syria -- an extremely densely populated country -- not like Afghanistan where you're fighting guerillas -- this would actually be a government and military in urban areas -- and for what American interest? And then he'd be muscling Iraq to keep our troops and the military industrial complex raking in the dough, while Americans at home are getting screwed.

Thank you to every Obama volunteer who got out the vote in 2008 and 2012. Bless you.

Chuck Hagel, unlike most of his chicken-hawk critics, understands that combat is serious business. He was altogether correct to criticize Bush's war as one of the greatest foreign policy disaters this country has experienced. As for the surge's "success," the fact remains the US has blown billions of dollars on this neocon nightmare, money that could have been better spent on the nation's crumbling infrastructure.

Yes, he's critical of the inordinate role Israel plays in our foreign policy and with good reason. And he backs Democratic friends over Tea Party types.

In short, Hagel is a moderate Republican loathed by the crazies who hijacked the conservative movement and have essentially discredited what used to be a worthy point of view.

That anti-Muslim bigot Abraham Foxman and his Anti-Defamation League destroyed their credibility the second they locked arms with Sarah Palin and shrieked for all Muslims to be scapegoated for 9/11 and banned from Lower Manhattan. It directly inspired attacks on mosques around the country.

What does J Street say about Hagel? They are the group that speaks for American Jews instead of speaking for the Likud party and lunatic West Bank settlers.

Hagel was a good moderate conservative and fully qualified, no wonder the GOP is deciding to oppose a guy who was in the Senate as a Republican for years. When the Republican party can't even accept moderate Republicans shows exactly how fringe the modern GOP really is. Wake up independents and moderates the GOP is an extremist organization and their certainty along with their terribly discreditted and damaging ideas will continue to damage us. As long as fickle and attention span challenged moderates and independents actually believe the sociopathic liars on the right have any, any worthwhile suggestions. I am glad that the media, centrists, moderates, and independents treat the GOP and their ideas as viable alternatives. I mean what could possibly convince these attention disorder voters, I mean we know a Second Republican great Depression and a trillion dollar war based on lies doesn't seem to color their opinion in anyway of Republicans and their ideas. Seriously, the GOP would not survive if journalists actually checked the empirircal record and called them on all their lies, instead they simply provide these crackpots and their bizarre disproven ideas an unquestioning microphone. Then wishy washy middle of the roaders who seemingly, can't remember past last tuesday, forget the massive track record of the failure of conservative ideas. And what happens John Boehner gets to threaten to shutdown our government and kill our credit rating because you people gave them the house. Thanks for that by the way.

Ah, J Street--the group that speaks for Jewish Americans instead of speaking for Likud and West Bank settlers--strongly supports Hagel. Enough said. As usual, AIPAC's attacks are all about coddling Likud. http://jstreet.org/blog/post/j...

Hagel is a good choice exactly because he is a straight shooter and doesn't pander. These losers were big supporters of Donald Rumsfeld, the worst Secretary of Defense in history. So much for evaluating talent.

I believe both Hagel and Kerry would serve this country well as head of Defense and State. Both are well qualified and both should sail through the senate and be confirmed. Now is not the time to let a couple of old grudges come in-between placing the best people in these jobs where level headedness and common sense need to prevail.